Written by Olivia Charis, (Yale University), Student Correspondent for CET Film Production at FAMU, Spring 2024
The weather has changed as rapidly as our schedules over the past month here in Prague. The end of February was marked by our class trip to Berlin and final pitches to the FAMU faculty. March seemed to go by so fast, with core classes ending, spring sickness, lighting exercise, and midterms. In the final week of March, we are finally preparing to start shooting this weekend.
Berlin & Final Pitches
Our Berlin trip was a whirlwind of activity, starting in Potsdam on our first day and arriving later in Berlin for two days of walking tours, film museum exhibitions, and downtime to explore with friends. While a nice break from Prague, we went right back into the swing of things with final pitches on the Monday after our trip.
Preparing presentations with our groups and getting critiqued by all the FAMU faculty and mentors was stressful, but honestly made me feel closer to my group in the end. We received a lot of feedback and practiced balancing taking constructive criticism with being confident in our ideas. Getting pitching done felt like a breath of fresh air.
Being Sick While Abroad…
Unfortunately, rather than returning to classes after the final pitches, I got sick. Being sick in a foreign country, thousands of miles away from your friends and family, is definitely one of the most stressful things I’ve experienced while being abroad. The lack of familiarity intensifies astronomically when you’re sick with foreign doctor’s offices, illegible medication labels, and unfamiliar go-to get-well foods. If you do come down with something abroad, here are a few things you can do:
- Have a friend pick up a few get-well staples. My go-to items were Tesco crackers (the closest things I could find to saltines), Blackcurrant Gatorade (a special Central European flavor you can find at a lot of mini markets), veggie/chicken Broth (it comes in cubes here and is usually found in the grocery aisles near the soup) and lots of water.
- Go to the Unicare Center. It’s a great option for urgent care that CET recommends during orientation. They are very helpful and used to working with international patients.
- Email your teachers and reach out to classmates so you don’t fall behind on your work. Not all teachers can zoom you into class, but getting notes from friends and just letting your teachers know your situation goes a long way toward not feeling overwhelmed or behind.
- Be patient with yourself and with being sick. Our study abroad schedule can be overwhelming and sometimes it feels like being sick just isn’t an option. But, the sooner you accept that you’re sick, the sooner you’ll start taking care of yourself to feel better.
Lighting Exercise
After getting over the hump of final pitches and early March sickness, it was on to lighting exercise. This is the point in the program where we finally get a chance to start getting hands-on experience with all of the equipment we’ll be using on set.
We work with our mentors to direct and shoot short scenes in FAMU Studio and then watch them all once they get developed at the end of the week. Every DP got a chance to practice shooting on 16 mm. We all practiced developing scenes under a myriad of lighting scenarios.
Seeing the final footage got me so excited to start shooting in April. After the lighting exercise, we took midterms for our language courses and officially finished the first half of the program with our core courses.
March was a whirlwind of a month, and it’s hard to believe it’s almost over. I’ll be on my first set here tomorrow. My group’s shoot starts on April 11, and we spent most of this week confirming our final shooting location and doing castings. By this time next month, everyone’s films will have been shot, and we’ll have moved on to post-production. For now, I’ll be enjoying the newfound spring weather, catching glimpses of cherry blossoms, and buying local fresh produce at the weekly farmer’s markets around the city.
